Extra Punctuation: Action Is Not Finisher Porn

[Fullmetalfox]

Capcom got it right. Ultra moves in SSFIV are 3 or 4 seconds long. That's enough time to make a spectacle without breaking the action flow.

The X-ray last about 4 seconds. The longest 6. The second Ryu ultra take 6 seconds (I'm not a crazy guy with an chronometer, I see this things on the youtube, if you wanna know). In fact, the close up "fist met chin" in this ultra it's an obvious inspiration to the MK X-Ray moves. Borderline, X-Ray are ultra movies with dark humor.

WoW! you are right! I just checked youtube and Ryu's ultra is 6 seconds long! I've done it hundreds of times and it never felt that long. Anyway, I haven't played the new MK yet so I dunno how long most of them are but Yahtzee makes it sound like they take an eternity. The ones I saw on youtube where 3 to 5 secs long, that's not too bad. I think he just finds it annoying because he doesn't like fighting games.

VATS in Fallout 3 gets really old really fast tough.

 

[putowtin]

finishing movies via QTE that lead to annoying unskippable cut-scenes that are repeated 50+ times throughout the game make me angry!

And you wouldn't like me when I'm angry!

 

[Robyrt]

These little finishing moves provide a valuable break in the action. In God of War, they have tactical relevance too, as you gain a brief moment of invulnerability for pulling one off.

Granted, after the hundredth time, you are ready to stop jamming your blade down a minotaur's throat and just stab him somewhere else and be done with it - but this is simply an issue of having too few animations, not an indictment of the concept.

 

[DTWolfwood]

a point of note, the GOW finishers are a god send when doing them challenge levels or when you are low health. As doing them makes you invincible and grants a reprieve from certain death by mobbing. So call it what you will, i've always saw then as a good way to take a breather and nothing more.

MK9 is a pretty sad game in that i've watched a lot of competitive fighting games and this is the one new game that i'm still pretty damn bored watching. most of the pro players don't even bother with fatalities when they win. Sets can go on without ever seeing an X-ray move.

I'm still more willing to watch SSF4 than MK9

surprised Yahtzee didn't mention MVC3 as that whole game is finisher porn, every move is flashy and the supers are all flashy!

 

[YodaUnleashed]

Just finished re-playing Batman Arkham Asylum and I hadn't appreciated the first time I'd played the game how incredibly good and fun the hand-to-hand combat was; it just flows perfectly (if you're button pressing is perfect that is) and taking out a group of thugs in one swift and flowing combo with no misses is very satisfying.

 

[toto230]

In my opinion, Fable 2 and Fallout 3 are guilty of this, as well. The VATS kill-cam in FO3 is particularly annoying.

I was thinking that. At least in New Vegas you can turn the kill-cam off. And VATS is optional, I really only use it when I'm low on ammo or getting my ass handed to me(you take less damage while vats is playing out).

See I was the opposite. I always used VATS and would very rarely actually shoot.

 

[Drew Linsley]

Personally its just a catchy way to draw people in to a long drawn out series before they decide to bring in another franchise to beat eachother up etc. its an interesting mechanic but when you continually see it... isnt it a bit disturbing that you would get used to the fact that it be becomes boring, if not normal? becoming de-sensitized to it? just a thought.

 

[skyfire_freckles]

I wish I could remember which game this was; maybe I dreamed it? But in this game, as you advanced in level you would gain abilities, many of which would have a finishing move if you happened to kill an enemy with it. The higher level you were, the cooler these moves would be. The best thing was, though, the first time you did it, it slowed down and centered and focused on what you'd done, but every other time you did it, it was just part of the flow of the game.

 

[Mangue Surfer]

Personally its just a catchy way to draw people in to a long drawn out series before they decide to bring in another franchise to beat eachother up etc. its an interesting mechanic but when you continually see it... isnt it a bit disturbing that you would get used to the fact that it be becomes boring, if not normal? becoming de-sensitized to it? just a thought.

Dude, in my point of view, there's nothing to sensitize in the first place. The gore is so over the top is so impossible to take it seriously. It's Bugs Bunny level of violence. I grew watching the Woody Woodpecker show reruns and I thinking this is more disturbed than MK9. Maybe this is the real problem, Bugs Bunny, Tom and Jerry and Woody Woodpecker de-sensitized generations. But now this is about to end with Twilight and with its vampires that avoid drink blood philosophy.

 

[Drew Linsley]

Thats a very valid point im not proud of many things going on in todays media market. some days i wish i was born a bit earlier. and yeah i love all of the classic violence, but that wasnt gore in truth. I guess my view of the the "gore" in MK is that its un-necessary and its just another gimmick as my main point.

 

[beefpelican]

I'd say Ninja Gaiden II also has a very good fast paced combat, sure it's hard as hell but the system is very fast paced because the finishing moves happen in a flash, nice and quick, you know, like a ninja should be... I guess it gets its porn aspects in in other ways though

This goes for all of the Ninja Gaidens that I've played. I'm fine with taking two seconds to let Ryu finish someone off because he doesn't waffle about or ask me to rapidly press A while he's doing it. Also, those brief moments of invulnerability were just about the only pause you got in that game.

As for Batman: AA having no finishers. The most annoying thing about it was waiting for a thug to stand up or walk over and slowly punch him in the face while other thugs waited around you.

This was an issue in Assassin's Creed, especially the first one, but I never really found it to be an issue in Batman. He can cover a lot of ground between moves, so I generally found that if someone was on the ground I could jump to them and do the takedown before they got back up.

 

[Undeadpool]

I don't get it, most of the ultras/supers in SSFIV are about the same length (look at Zangief or Hakan), yet MK gets dumped on for having "long" X-rays that are 100% optional? And also incredibly tactically useful? Yeah, they're a little long, but is it really THAT different?

 

[GreenII]

To be fair, none of these games require you to use fancy finishing moves.

In MK for example, you can use your accumulated energy to launch several enhanced special attacks, or break an opponents combo. Either way the X-ray moves should definitely take longer to charge and be more difficult to pull off, at least this way players wouldn't be seeing the same overlong animation two or three times per fight.

Finishing moves in GOW style games are a much bigger problem, If you don't execute them, you are often missing out on things like health and experience.

 

[Sephychu]

I'd agree, except I really liked the finishers in Bayonetta, I thought they fit really well. Like has been mentioned, they give a break in an otherwise unrelentingly frantic game, like a smart bomb would in a space shooter.
Plus, they built to a head in every level, culminating with a huge demon summon which ate, punched, ate or played volleyball with the level boss. Then it happened again at the end, which was really cool.

 

[Sterling|D-Reaver]

I agree with you on this one for sure, but fighting games have never been my thing. Now that I think about there are other games that do this sort of thing in one way or another, gameplay should not be of the 'rinse and repeat' type. It's like the game is your mom taping you on the should to remind you that your still just playing a game and NOT having the epic adventure of your life!

 

[ChillShark]

Speaking of intervening........ I always wondered why didn't the good guys from DBZ just break the bad guy's neck while he was transforming instead of waiting for him to complete and be even more powerful.

 

[Zetsubou^-^]

i think one where the finisher was really good was the assassin's creed series. it let you finish an enemy that would have taken several more hits to kill, and it was done by either overpowering the guy til you got the opportunity, or by successfully countering.

maybe that's not a good "finisher" though, cause i had the habit of opening with that, and had a particularly fun time seeing how many i could kill before they raise their guard. i found it hilarious when i killed like 7-8 and avoided a fight completely in ass creed 2(early in the game too). they let the AI slip a bit. in the first one, you could get off 3-4 max before they guarded, and the hidden blade couldn't be used offensively at all (i like it though. i consider the sword an option now instead of a requirement)

for god of war im torn. its finishers do get annoying, but its the only way to get minotaurs and gorgons to drop health and mana. i actually prefer the enemies with the finishers, because its a way to get them out of the way instead of having to pummel each and every one to 0 life.

 

[Evill_Bob]

This is why I'm really getting into fighting games like Overgrowth or ZenoClash. Sure one isn't anywhere near done and the other is a little unpolished (and downright weird, but that's half the charm right?) but they keep the action flowing. Plus you spend more time deciding what to do in an ever changing tactical situation instead of how to do a specific five button combo or a 3 button combo repeated over and over again until you win (Hadoken!).

 

[Moeez]

The finishers act as a breather to the gameplay loop, so you can then re-assess the combat situation and repeat. Seems like Ben is not against their idea, just their duration.

I agree on the duration being short, but I also appreciate when developers bother putting enough different animations that they hardly repeat. Making them hard to do, like having a close-quarters finisher in a FPS (The Darkness [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xtdRORyvBo]) where you can be fired upon if you're too close, is a smart idea.

 

[theultimateend]

WoW! you are right! I just checked youtube and Ryu's ultra is 6 seconds long! I've done it hundreds of times and it never felt that long. Anyway, I haven't played the new MK yet so I dunno how long most of them are but Yahtzee makes it sound like they take an eternity. The ones I saw on youtube where 3 to 5 secs long, that's not too bad. I think he just finds it annoying because he doesn't like fighting games.

VATS in Fallout 3 gets really old really fast tough.

Honestly they go by really fast. The average X-Ray takes about as long as the same amount of hits would.

I've never seen a fight go longer because I used them.

It's just not a game that was marketed towards him. I'm sure someone will make a fluid fighting game, then people will abuse the mechanics and the game will die. But at least it'll have been done?

(Soul Calibur can kind of do it, fun to watch a buddy play nightmare and take you from 100% to 0% life before his combo is over, unless you know the super awesome counter combos...)

Speaking of intervening........ I always wondered why didn't the good guys from DBZ just break the bad guy's neck while he was transforming instead of waiting for him to complete and be even more powerful.

The vast majority of the fighters were curious of just whether or not they could actually defeat their opponent.

Effectively it was many seasons of the saying "Curiosity killed the Cat". This is also why MOST of the time they person waiting is watching on with some level of awe.